Conclusion and Synthesis: What Can be Learnt from our Four Country Studies?

We set out to explore three themes centred around the Islamic provision of social welfare services and social capital. First, we wished to assess the extent to which economic liberalisation programmes, implemented under the auspices of the IMF and World Bank, were associated with a decline in state welfare provision and an increase in poverty. Second, to the extent that this was the case we wanted to examine whether Islamic groups had moved in to provide social welfare and fill the welfare gap created by the gradual withdrawal of the state from economic affairs. Finally, to the extent that economic reform had restricted the ability of the state to protect the poor, we wished to examine whether this had strengthened the hand of political Islam and undermined the political legitimacy of the incumbent regimes the Washington institutions such as the IMF and World Bank sought to support, forcing these regimes to become increasingly authoritarian.